A couple of hours passed, and still not a word of useful information came out of Ara’s mouth. We’d hear the occasional grunt, and sometimes a colorful comment would escape under her breath. But she stayed in the same place, motionless, staring daggers across the sloop into all of us.

I meandered to Portia’s side, keeping enough distance so I wouldn’t interrupt her navigation, and admired the strong curves I’d assumed she worked very hard to maintain. And what amazing curves they were. Damn, tan lines look good on her.

And glory be that I was by myself in my own head again. Never again would I take having full control of my body for granted. No strange movements, no intrusive thoughts of crippling insecurities; not an ounce of Destiny left in my brain. Well, physically, anyway.

Damn, I really hope her and Lara are okay.

“Hey, Matt. Got your head in the clouds again?” Portia had a single raised brow. Had I been staring all this time?

My face grew hot, and I looked away. “Yeah. I guess you could say that.”

“What eatin’ at ya? Talk to Auntie Portia. She’ll set you right. For a nominal fee, that is.” Portia winked, taking her eyes off the ocean for scarce a moment.

I forced a smile. “Thanks. Just a lot going on, I guess. Being in Destiny’s body was rough.”

“What was that all about anyway?”

“Long story. But I guess we got nothing but time at the moment. The short of it, though, is that we found the man and broke him out using magical disguises.” I scratched an itch on my cheekbone. “Ravyn made it pretty damn clear that the magic could mess you up if you aren’t careful, especially if it’s for the opposite sex.”

“Sounds complicated,” Portia said with a half-hearted laugh.

“Pretty much. Interesting, confusing, exhausting. The emotions, though.” I shuddered. Destiny’s self-deprecating thoughts re-surfaced. Though this time, they were much easier to accept and dismiss as mere memories and not the thoughts of my own conscience. “But, the spell makes you take on their body in just about every way you can conceive. For better or worse.”

“Does it read minds?”

I shook my head. “Nothing that in-depth. But it was almost like Destiny herself was talking to me sometimes. Or like her body recognized what was going on and reacted. If that makes any sense.”

“Barely,” Portia admitted.

I shrugged. “I’m still trying to put it together myself. Muscle memory mostly guided me. But it got me thinking about Celestia, all of the girls who go to that school, and this room they all seem to be scared of.”

“A room? What the hell for?”

“Dunno. I knew the door when I looked at it, though. Felt this overwhelming fear. It’s fucked up.” I found my stare drifting to where Tristan rested. I could only see Cannoli’s bottom half from where I was. She’d taken a seat next to him and was reading through a book. “I hope Tristan understands what we’ve done.”

“What about Ara? Seems real antsy to get back to her paradise.”

I turned my head around and caught Ara’s glare. I held the stare for a few seconds, then broke away with a sigh. “Just kinda winging it right now. We’ll see, I guess.”

“Everyone! Quick! He’s waking up!” came Cannoli’s voice as she slammed her book.

“That’s my cue,” I said with a quick wave to Portia. I stepped around her and approached the stairs leading down to where Tristan slept. Keke, Ravyn, and Ara joined in, and a small crowd formed around the stairs.

Tristan put a hand to his forehead, moaning and groaning, then slowly one of his sapphire-blue eyes opened, squinting and looking around. First to Cannoli, then to each of us in turn. His stare stayed on me for some time.

Tristan shot up and pointed to me with a gaping stare. “Another man!”

“Easy now,” Cannoli said with a hint of red on her cheeks, “don’t move too fast.”

Tristan bowed forward and clapped a hand to his mouth. “Oh my god, why do I feel so—”

Ravyn was standing beside me, her arms crossed. “Seems you downed the whole damn bottle, so I’d take it slow if I were you. Baka.”

Cannoli rested a hand on Tristan’s shoulder, and my toes squirmed. Easy now. She’s just trying to take care of him, that’s all.

A sheen of sweat was collecting on Tristan’s forehead. His breathing slowed at Cannoli’s suggestion and, after some time, he finally managed to speak. “Where am I?”

“That’s a reasonable first question,” Ravyn mused. “You’re on a boat.”

“A sloop!” Portia corrected from above.

“A sloop,” Ravyn said with a roll of her eyes. “We’ve taken you away from Shi Island.”

Tristan blinked once. Then twice. “What?” he exclaimed. “Why? How did… but Destiny was—” Tristan shook himself away from Cannoli and scrambled to a corner of the wall. He looked crazed, though I can’t say I was surprised after being stuck in one place for so long.

“How long were you locked up inside the school?” I had to know. When the hell was the last time this guy went outside? He was so pale, so pure-looking. It made me feel like a criminal for busting him out.

“I was not locked up. Take me back! Now! Please, I beg of you!” Tristan pleaded.

Ravyn shook her head. “Not happening, little boy. We’re going to get you as far away from those insane bitches as possible.”

“How dare you!” he said, wide-eyed. “They’ve taken care of me! Made sure I was safe! They live wondrous, enriched lives! They won’t survive without me!”

“Life finds a way,” I said. “They’ll make it somehow. They did before you, and they’ll do it again.”

Tristan shook his head rapidly. “No. No, no, no, you do not understand. All they’ve worked for will crumble without my presence. You must take me back, posthaste!”

“And to that, I say I agree,” Ara said from behind me. “You have no right to force him out of his home as you did.”

“And you’ve no right to lock him up and poison him with infantile fantasies,” Ravyn spat back.

“Stop!” Keke bellowed. “Can we please just talk this over? Please?”

I shot Keke a glance from the corner of my eye. “I think that’s for the best. There’s a lot to cover.”

“I will not hear of it!” Ara screamed out. “Take us back! At once! He has no desire, no wish to leave! I must see to my sister, and Tristan must fulfill his duty!”

“And what duty would that be?” Keke asked pointedly.

Ara stuck her nose up and shut her eyes.

Clammed up again. Let’s see if this guy is any better.

“To propagate the island,” Tristan said simply. “It is the duty of all men. Is that not right?”

Boy, that makes us sound like cows to be milked when the situation fancies my owner.

“That is correct, Master Tristan,” Ara said with a micro-bow. “For that reason, I insist we bring you back to Shi Island so that matters can return to normalcy.”

“I agree,” Tristan said with a nod. “So please. Take me back. I must return. There are at least two girls who require me tonight.”

Jesus Christ, how often does this guy get laid?

“Need I remind you that you are breaking the law?” Ara hissed. “The Queen’s law.”

An uneasy silence surrounded us. Ravyn had made it clear that impeding a man’s will was tantamount to suicide. That we might as well lay our heads on the guillotine at that very moment. But the girls were not the only ones involved here—to execute them would be to execute me. And although it was a massive gamble, one that I had to admit made me feel way more important than I had any right feeling, I was willing to wager they wouldn’t lay a hand on me.

I was too valuable.

“This was my plan,” I said. “All of it. So if you’re going to punish anyone, it’ll be me. Like you said—the Queen’s law. To disobey a man is essentially illegal. I forced these girls to obey me. Refusing my orders would not be in their best interests. So if the Queen has an issue, she can take it up with me.”

Ravyn hadn’t directly said anything about it, but if men were as valuable as they were, then interfering in their affairs was likely a grey area. Two men who argued opposite sides. How were the girls supposed to know who to obey? Did we duel to the death? Maybe that was to my benefit.

“This is between us, Tristan.” I marched down the steps and motioned for Cannoli to take the bed opposite of his. “I just want to get to the bottom of this. Nothing bad will happen so long as you just cooperate. Can we start over?”

Tristan seemed incapable of anger. Perhaps I could talk to him and, hopefully, make him see reason.

“Fine,” Tristan relented.

“For starters. How long have you been on this island?”

Tristan paused. “Three years.”

Holy shit. Okay, no, not important. Moving on.

“Did you get—” My face grew hot at the thought of how many times he must have completed the catgirl banging quest. “No. Backing up. Do you have an iPaw?”

Each one of Tristan’s responses was slow and spoken carefully. As if he were giving the question some thought before jumping to the answer. “I do. Appear, iPaw.” A near-identical copy of the iPaw appeared in mid-air, dropping into his hands. “I’ve had it since the first day I arrived.”

“Great. What have you been doing all this time? Why not seek out the other men?”

Tristan shook his head. “Pointless, really. Why look for the other men when our job is the propagation of the islands. One man for each island, is that not so?”

“That is so. Who told you that?”

“Celestia, of course.”

Of course. I sighed and cracked my neck to the right. “Alright, hear me out. I have a proposition. There’s a lot about this island, about all of Nyarlea you don’t know. There’s more to our role than simply banging out kittengirls.”

“What could be more important than ensuring the livelihoods of catgirls, big and small?”

Fucking diplomat, this one. “I think if you just let us show you around the island, you’ll see that your job isn’t as simple as Celestia made it out to be.”

Tristan frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Better if you see it for yourself. Then, if you’re still convinced that living in that room for the rest of your days is what you’re meant to do, then so be it. We’ll leave and never return.”

Ravyn gasped, gritted her teeth. “You can’t be serious,” she hissed.

“What you do afterward is up to you,” I continued, ignoring her.

God, I hope this works.